This remote-controlled wagon is silly but so very useful

Confession: When BougeRV told me about its remote-controlled wagon with animated lighting, I called it in for a laugh, expecting to eviscerate it in a review. It's ridiculous, to be sure. But the DuneRover also proved very capable, with enough torque to flatten hills even when carrying over 200 pounds of gear. It can also traverse soft sand that defeats conventional wagons.

As someone who regularly uses a variety of wagons to haul all sorts of gear, the DuneRover is an epiphany. But what BougeRV sent me was a Kickstarter prototype — and it shows.

Production units won't ship until February 2027. So, what follows is less of a review and more a risk assessment for those considering backing the Kickstarter. That way, you can decide whether it makes sense to lock down early-bird pricing at $467, a claimed 48 percent discount off the eventual $899 list price. (Though I'll wager it'll always be sold for some kind of discount.)

Frankly, $500 isn't outlandish for a wagon. Prices start at around $40 for a rickety model that will only last a few months, $300 for something durable from a reputable brand, and closer to $800 at the top end. And none of those wagons provides a motorized assist.

Let's begin with the dumb stuff. The wagon has LED light bars on the back that are on by default and could come in handy at a campsite after dark. You can turn them off via the app, but you have to do it every time you restart the wagon. The default for a battery-powered device used primarily during the day should obviously be off.

Then there's the remote control. I think I know what happened here. The product designers had a choice: route a cable through all the folding mechanisms that separate the motor from the handle or make it wireless. Wireless won, and then someone from marketing said, ‘Hey, I've got an idea!'

I mean, a remote-controlled wagon is so absurd that it's kind of fun, and it brought a lot of joyful finger-pointing to onlookers during my testing. Maybe that's enough?

The DuneRover is no joke for hauling gear. It's fitted with two brushless geared motors, each producing up to 400W of output and up to 33Nm of torque. The wagon is activated by a trigger embedded in the handle that you press naturally when you pull the cart. Walk faster and the wagon will roll faster. Sometimes the wagon will lurch forward on that initial pull before settling into your walking rhythm. It's not dangerous, it's just unexpected. Release the trigger on the handle, and the wagon stops, even on an incline.

Pulling an oversized load weighing over 200 pounds up a 10 percent grade required a modicum of effort — but just a tenth of what it would have taken without the motor assist. Even on that steep incline, the wagon stops (with an inch or two of rollback) just as soon as I let go of the trigger. Repeated stopping and starting on slopes did, however, seem to confuse the DuneRover, occasionally causing the motors to become jerky as soon as I started walking again. A simple on/off resumed normal operation.

The motors also regulate speed when walking downhill with a heavy load. With the trigger held down, the controller did a good job monitoring changes in acceleration and countering the wagon's speed to maintain my walking pace. When I stopped, so did the wagon, even on that 10 percent grade with a 200-plus pound load.

The motors aren't powerful enough to haul that same load through soft sand, however. The oversized beach wheels performed much better in sand with loads weighing about half that, and should be excellent for families carrying a cooler, snacks, beach umbrella, toddler, and toys for a day at the beach.

I like that the DuneRover easily transformed depending on what I needed to haul. The sides can be unzipped and folded flat to convert the wagon into a cart for hauling oversized items or a senior dog. You can also unzip the sides but leave the straps connected to create more volume inside the wagon. I used this configuration a lot. Just know that you'll want to bring a few bungee cords or cargo nets to keep everything securely in place.

My prototype suffered from intermittent rolling resistance with the motor off. The wagon would roll along fine for five or six feet, but then the wheels attached to the motors would brake, drag along the ground, and then release after a second or two. BougeRV assures me this isn't something that would be exhibited by its production wagons. I ended up just leaving the motor on throughout my testing, even when I didn't need it. The 82.14Wh battery was more than up to the challenge.

I used the DuneRover to move gear out of a beach house along the same route where I tested BougeRV's original electric wagon. Six times I pulled the DuneRover along a path with 5 percent grade on one end and a 10 percent grade on the other. After six kilometers (3.73 miles) of soft sand, hard asphalt, wooden ramps, and gravel, the battery still showed a 74 percent charge. Not bad.

The removable battery features a bi-directional 100W USB-C port, making it a rather capable power bank. It can also charge from a 100W solar panel plugged into its XT-60 jack, thanks to a built-in MPPT solar controller. The battery in my prototype is not protected against rain, so I tested it in dry conditions, though BougeRV promises “full-vehicle IPX6-rated protection†in the production wagon.

The DuneRover is a beast at 59.5 pounds (27kg) with the battery and wheels installed. It's also rather chunky when it folds. The quick-release front wheels can be removed if a flatter pack is required.

Overall, I'm impressed with the prototype DuneRover I tested — it's capable, versatile, and proved to be an enormous help over the last few weeks of moving things between a holiday home, home, and adventure van. Like most BougeRV products, it gets the basics right, but not without a few annoyances and inconveniences. I'd expect the same from whatever ships to Kickstarter backers early next year.

All photography by Thomas Ricker / The Verge.